An exceptionally strange controversy that dogged Cox Media and some marketing firms has resurfaced, after claims they were secretly listening to users via phones and smart devices – despite little evidence of it actually happening. On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Cox, MindSift and 1010 Digital Works will pay a total of $930,000 to settle allegations that they lied about actually spying on people to target ads.
As chronicled techdirt A few years ago, Cox publicly boasted about a system called Voice Data in 2023, telling potential digital marketing clients that they could ensure that “every casual interaction between two consumers becomes a tool for you to target, retarget, and retain customers.” It compared the technique to an episode black Mirror And it described it as the real version of the persistent, largely unfounded rumor that social media companies routinely listen in on users through phone microphones. Cox backed down and denied that he was listening to the conversation, but 404 media Published several internal pitch decks making essentially the same highly dystopian claims.
At the time, there was considerable skepticism that this was actually happening, and the FTC complaints support this. “In fact, the service did not listen to consumers’ conversations or use voice data at all – nor did the service accurately deliver advertisements to customers’ desired locations,” it said in its press release. “Instead, the service provided by the companies consisted of reselling – at a significant markup – email lists obtained from other data brokers.” The agency also says the companies lied about consumer adoption of the system — even though they did can It alleges that by spying on people, they may still be breaking the law.
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